Saturday, September 1, 2012

Luke Donald is one of the best golfers in the world. He's won a lot of the big events, seems to enjoy his life and his Twitter is one of the few fantastic ones on tour.

And because of that, he occasionally says something he didn't want. Like on Saturday, after a bad bounce on the final hole forced him to make bogey on the par-5 18th that was redesigned before this year.

Donald complained after about it, but it was the mis-direct message that had people laughing.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

As you have probably noticed, this page has become a ghost town. There are a number of factors for me taking some time away from DTCC, but it isn't that fair to people that enjoy it (I know you're out there!), and I've been batting some ideas around for what to do with this page that would be different from my current gig over at CBS Sports.

To be fair, it was never that much fun writing the same story over AOL/Yahoo/CBS that I did here. I had to come up with different, random ideas that were sometimes fun, sometimes stale, and occasionally informative. I also made sure the last year to focus on newsy stories over here that the company that I advertise with, Yardbarker, would throw on the front page and gain me some traffic.

But alas, the honest truth is I'm simply burnt out with double duty golf blogging. I've been doing this job for more than five years, and it as much fun as it is to write dumb things about Tiger Woods, it sometimes gets old when you have to tag-team the lede.

So, per a request from a reader, I'm changing Dogs That Chase Cars. This site isn't going to be golf news anymore. It's going to be Shane news. No, this will not be a Facebook news feed ("Just ate Sushi .. delish!"), but it will be a golf blog about my golfing. For some odd reason, I was gifted with a pretty damn good golf game, and while I know how to golf my ball around, I sometimes lack in the motivation, and confidence, needed to really push myself to new level. Hopefully being able to put what I'm doing with my game on paper, per se, will help me work and become better.

But first, a few Q and As that I'm assuming you're wondering.

Q. Will this be one of those websites where you chronicle your works at becoming a pro golfer?

A. Umm, hell no. I've been down that road, and realized long ago that I had a better chance of owning Michael Jackson's Thriller jacket than I do at a green jacket. I won't play in a PGA Tour event in my life, and at 28, I'm okay with that.

Q. So if it isn't' that, what are you going to be talking about?

A. Well, my game. What I did that day. What my thoughts where. How I was dealing with nerves when I had a birdie putt to win $50, $100 or $400. What the range was like and how I'm working on different things to improve this or that. If I'm hitting it all over the place off the tee, what the hell can I do to make that stop? And I'm going to go back to working with an instructor to improve my golf game. My goal is to find someone that will be okay with me posting pictures, and tips, that he has about my game. I need to find an instructor as excited about me becoming a better golfer as I am. Sadly, that is hard to find, but it isn't impossible.

Q. Why would I read this?

A. Honestly, I don't know. Would you? I think golfers like to hear about other golfer's goods and bars, and that is what this will be. There will be sad stories about my game falling apart when I needed it the most, and times when I close birdie-birdie to post a nifty 67. There will be times I want to quit the game, and times I wish the sun was out 24 hours. It's the game we all love, and why you came here in the first place (well, except you, mom, you had to), and I want to give you a look into my golfing adventures as I hope you do with mine.

Q. How are we going to do that?

A. Well, that's the fun part. You have a good golf story? Share it with me. Email it to me (email is under my profile over there on the right), and I'll post it. No, I probably won't post them all, but if it's good, it'll go up. This is a forum of sorts, and I want everyone to enjoy it.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

So, right around this time every year (Every. Year.) readers and followers and golf fans from across the pond (And some in the US) start the incessant plea for the rights to name the third, and oldest, major championship.

The true name of the British Open, as we call it over on this side of the pond, is the Open Championship. I completely agree. It IS the Open Championship.

The thing is, we in the media world have to write for a mass of people that might not know that. They may think we're talking about the U.S. Open or the British or the Canadian or, hell, the Phoenix Open. While it is the proper name, it's a little confusing (the same reason Europeans call the PGA Championship the US PGA Championship).

But, it's confusing ... so we call it the British Open. That just makes more sense over here so that we don't have to explain what the hell we're talking about (Breaking news: a lot of Americans aren't exactly world travelers).

Now, THAT SAID, during the week of the British, I will happily call it the Open Championship.

Honestly, links golf is my favorite golf in the world. I've lived in Scotland, caddied at the Old Course, spent hours on those golf courses hitting fun golf shots that do all sorts of different things a yard here or there. I've knocked back scotch at Cruden Bay, a Tennents at the Whey Pat, and dragged my dad across the pond to check out as many of those beauties as I could.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

You probably have watched some of the U.S. Open. It's been great TV. But do you know if Tiger Woods has played good golf, or bad golf? Let the pictures guide you, and then guess at the end. Good luck! (All photos courtesy of the great people at Getty Images)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In a few hours Tiger Woods will, for the second time this year, bypass a pre-tournament press conference to tool around on the Internet and interact with friends. His first, rightfully nicknamed the hostage video, was Tiger reading, rather blandly, questions from fans while sitting on what appeared to be a set from Ikea.

On Tuesday, the interaction will take on another face as Tiger and Google+ have teamed up to give us some sort of social interaction that is live to all the golf fans across the world. And by doing this, he isn't going to show up and chat with the media before the Memorial, a tournament he's won four times.

And I do not care. One bit. I don't blame Tiger for skipping the press conference just like I don't blame media members for being upset that the most popular figure in the game won't sit around and act like he's answering questions.

Tiger Woods hasn't answered a question in years. He sits in front of cameras with that blank stare on his face and talks of his golf game and his swing and how close he is to being great again, but nothing is every groundbreaking. He isn't speaking of his personal life or his business or his future plans. He doesn't really talk about other players or his ever-changing golf swing or the fact that he doesn't win that much anymore.

And I know that Tiger's approach to press conferences could one day change the whole landscape to this in the golf world. Think about it; if you're Rory McIlroy, and you see that Tiger is never going to do another pre-tournament press conference, why would you? Sure, some people actually enjoy talking to the media (I'll wait for you to get back into your chair), but if I was a pro golfer and the most famous guy in our sport was bypassing an obligation for another means of chatting with the public, it wouldn't take me long to follow suit (think of this as golf's version of the Louis C.K. experiment).

I watched the 1999 U.S. Open a couple of weeks ago, and saw a much happier Tiger Woods strolling the fairways. He wasn't going to win that tournament, but he smiled at fans and looked like he generally was enjoying himself out on the golf course and was interested in the competition. It struck me as odd because that is so far from what Tiger looks like now when he's playing golf. He might still enjoy being in the moment and all that jazz, but when he plays bad golf he really looks like he hates what he's doing. I can relate to that. Playing bad golf sucks, simple as that, but it was fun to see a smiling Tiger Woods back in those days trying to get a leg up on history with a second major championship.

Tiger now would like to play the game and that's it. If he wants to interact with his fans instead of the media, I'm totally fine with that. If he doesn't want to talk to anyone at all, it won't hurt my feelings. This game of golf has always been an independent contractor-type situation, and Tiger can do whatever he wants whenever he wants and as long as he shows up and attempts to play solid golf at events, I'll be totally fine with that.

Nobody in this business is ever going to have a relationship with Woods now. He might as well try to get in better with his core group and not so much with the scribes that love to bash him.

Golf has and always will be Tiger's world. This is just another step in that direction.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Golf Digest recently rolled out a list of the ten cool and not cool things on a golf course. The article nailed a couple of them (yes, it is uncool to wear red on Sundays like Tiger Woods, but it is also uncool for Tiger to do it), confused with a couple (why the heck is an eraser on a pencil uncool? You think golfers are good at math?!), but generally did what is asked of an article to start a discussion.

So here is our list of cool, uncool things to do on the golf course.

Cool / Not Cool

Cool: Bringing a music player and jamming to music in your cart
Not Cool: Getting mad that someone is enjoying some music and asking them to turn it off (News Alert: it isn't the reason you're sucking).

Cool: Buying drinks from the cart girls/halfway house
Not Cool: Sneaking beers in your bag to the course, you cheap bastard

Cool: Kids in flat-brimmed caps
Not Cool: Anyone over the age of 30 in flat-brimmed caps (via @shosheak)

Cool: Matching your belt with your outfit
Not Cool: Same belt you wear to work is also your only golf option

Cool: Having a coin in your pocket before you get to the first tee
Not Cool: Sticking a tee in the ground for the first nine holes because you "keep forgetting to get a mark"

Cool: Understanding and comprehending how far your hit the golf ball
Not Cool: Waiting for the green to clear when it is literally impossible for you to get there even if you hit the shot of your life and a dust devil picked your ball up mid-air and blew it towards the green

Cool: Offering to buy your playing partners, even if they're total strangers, the first round
Not Cool: Getting a free round and then shying away when the cart girl pulls up

Cool: A confident smile after a good shot
Not Cool: "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again."

Actually ... Not Cool: Any golf cliche you have ever heard or have ever said or have ever thought. Everyone hates them. Everyone.

Cool: Saying hi to a left-hander
Not Cool: "Hey, you're hitting from the wrong side of the ball!"

Cool: Waiting until your playing partner is standing over his putt to tell him it's good.
Not Cool: Asking, or begging, for a putt to be given.

Cool: Water slapping a playing partner on a hot day (walk up and throw a small cup of cool water in their face without them knowing it)
Not Cool: Undoing the bag strap on the cart so their clubs fall off when they drive.

Cool: The Club Twirl
Not Cool: The Putter Raise

Cool: A nice, light golf bag
Not Cool: Using a staff bag if you are in fact not on staff with anyone